By Jason Kim: Super middleweight contender Edison Miranda (33-4, 29 KO’s) had to pull out of his January 9th bout against World Boxing Organization super middleweight champion Robert Stieglitz yesterday because the 28-year-old Miranda has been sick with a bad case of the flu. Miranda will need at least 4 to 6 weeks to fully recover from the illness, but still wants to attempt to make the fight with Stieglitz, if possible, at that time. If not, then Miranda will be looking to see if he can land a fight with IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute.

Miranda recently stopped Franciso Sierra in the 1st round in October to capture the interim WBO NABO super middleweight title. Earlier in 2009, Miranda lost a lopsided 12 round decision to Andre Ward in May. Miranda was too slow to catch up to the speedy Ward, and was never a factor in the fight.

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Rafael picks Jacobs as prospect of the year

ESPN writer Dan Rafael has picked 22-year-old middleweight contender Daniel Jacobs (18-0, 15 KO’s) as the prospect of the year for 2009. Jacobs, a former amateur star in the U.S., defeated the following fighters in 2009: Jose Luis Cruz, Jose Varela, Michael Walker, George Walton and Ishe Smith. Jacobs stopped three of the fighters and looked good up until recently when he was staggered by the defensively oriented Smith in Jacob’s 10 round decision in August. Jacobs struggled in that fight with the veteran Smith, and incredibly seemed like the weaker puncher of the two, despite all the hype surrounding Jacob’s punching power.

Jacobs has been matched really softly since coming up from the amateur ranks, and because of the low quality of many of his opponents, he was able to stop most of them without too many problems. Only recently has Jacobs been put in with good fighters, and his knockouts are starting to dry up, as you expect.

Although still very green and limited in terms of experience against quality opposition, Jacobs has been pushed up fast in the middleweight rankings where he currently sits at number #5 WBO and, #5 WBA. I don’t that Jacobs has the talent to be a champion. He doesn’t throw combinations and seems to load up too much with his shots. If he was a monstrous puncher, then I could see him doing well, but he doesn’t punch as hard as some people think. I also didn’t like seeing Jacobs get staggered by the light punching Smith. That’s surely not a good sign for the future. I can only imagine what would have happened to Jacobs had he been put in with a puncher like Kelly Pavlik. While as an amateur, Jacobs struggled against the big punching Matvey Korobov.

The one good thing that Jacobs has going for him is that the middleweight division is so poor at this time. There are a handful of good fighters like Kelly Pavlik, Felix Sturm, Paul Williams, Winky Wright, and a bunch of good but flawed fighters like Gennady Golovkin, Matthew Macklin, Hassan N’Dam, Anthony Mundine, Roman Karmazin, Dmitry Pirog, Sebastian Sylvester, Daniel Geale, and Giovanni Lorenzo. I see Jacobs as a flawed fighter, and not among the top fighters. However, even the top guys are very flawed as well. The division, like I said, is very weak, and I can’t see any of them beating any of the top super middleweights like Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, Lucian Bute, and Mikkel Kessler.

Among the other names that Rafael has picked as the top prospects for 2009 are the following fighters:

Saul Alvarez
Demetrius Andrade
Chris Avalos
Adrien Broner
Danny Garcia
Miguel Garcia
Frankie Gavin
Gennady Golovkin
Fernando Guerrero
Omar Henry
Marcus Johnson
Mike Jones
Matvey Korobov
Erislandy Lara
David Lemieux
Roberto Marroquin
Vanes Martirosyan
Shawn Porter
Rico Ramos
Guillermo Rigondeaux
Edwin Rodriguez
Odlanier Solis
Antown Smith
Deontay Wilder

Out of this group, I’d pick a small handful that I think will amount to something and possibly end up a champion. Johnson, Rigondeaux, Lara, Andrade and Golovkin will all likely be champions at some point in the near future. I can’t see the other fighters ending up as champions. They need a lot of work. However, I do think they’ll be good contenders and will stick around for awhile.